The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1887-03-31
WANTED, A NOVELTY.
There Is No New Thing Under the Sun.

"There Is No New Thing Under the Sum-"
We unite in hailing the electric tele-
graph as tho wonder of the age but the
idea is as cid IS 1887, at least. Scher-
wenter in that year cXpla MS how two
individuals an communicates With each
othert.y mccns Of the magnetic needle.
In1716 Lc Monaier, b. q series of ex-
periments in the Royal Gardens in Pari,
showed Low elcctr city could lie trans
mittcd throu h iron wire $50 .thous in
length, ard in 1853 there was reEl:rk-
able descr pit on OF the ele tr C telegraph
in the Scots Magazine, i'll an article
entitled An Expeditions Method OF
Conveying Intelligence" by Charles
Marshall. In IVA We find an electric
te., graph in full working order, and
cap;; IL OF transmitting meg ages.
This was he invention OF George Louis
Lesage, of Geneva, who announ~ d 1t i'll
17GD. His instrument was comp sed OF
twenty-four metallic wires, separate
from each other and inclosed In a HON
conducting substance. Each wire ended
in q stalk, mounted with l tile ball of
elder wood suspended by silk thread.
When q stream of electricity, no matter
how slight, was sent through the wiz.
the elder ball at the emu was repealed.
such movement designating .omo letter
of the alphabet.
A few years later, in Arthur Young's
as Travels in France" we real OF . Sim
liar machine, the tnvention Of . NJ.
Lomond. Of Paris.
Photography is only skillful devel-
opment OF very old idea Sun-paint-
Leonardo da Incl IN the fifteenth GEN.
fury. The art then lay in oblivion till
176O, when it was clearly indicated in
book published In Paris entitled - Clip
hantie." written by Tiphanie de La
Roche.
OF. uuDopbrx. no wv,
and James Watt made experiments Oh
the action Of light upon nitrate Of liver
at the beginning of the present cetury.
and many years after, among the old
household lumber of Watts partner.
Matthew Boulton. was found q represen-
tation of the old premis S at Soho. on .
silvered copper plate, apparently taken
by some such process.
We often hear the Thames tunnel cited
as an example of the wonderful genius
OF modern engineering, but the tunnel
under he Euphrates at ancient Baby Ion
was equally wonderful, 4 nd that under the
wide mouth of the harbor at biarseilie'
was a greater enterprise. while botn
these ancient works were us skliiiully ex-
ecuted as the modern.
In museum at Venice there sre
numerous firearms of the fifteenth and
| sixteenth centuries that forestaIl many
| of our most recent improvements. such
as revolving pistols, rified muskets. and
| breech loading cannon.
Steam locomotion by sea and land had
| always been a dream of scientists. AS
| early as 1913 BlaSco de Garay triel 10
! accomplish it in the harbor of Barcelona.
Denis Papin made similar gtten. 1T at
Cassel IN 1707. But it was not til
| the problem of the steam engine had
been solved by Watt that the idea OF
| steam locomotion could be put in
| practice.
Thou1h Denis Papin was unsuccessful
in his attempt to effect steam l como
| ton, to him is due the crcd.s Of having
| first thrown out the idea of etmospat ric
locomotion, and another Frencnmap,
Gauthey. in 1882, projected a method
Of conveying parcels and merchandise
similar to the now familiar pneumatic
tube.
The reaping- machine is an old inven
ton. Bar::abc Coco, in q book trans
lated ON the German, entitled The
| Whole Ar e of Uusbc-dric," Published
| in 1877, sncaks of it as worn-out in
| vention-;. thin, &c which was WOO t tC
be used in France. Tho evica vG5 g
| love kindc of caro-, with a couple Of
wh-cle5, and tho frunt armed With sharp
syckins, whiche, forced b. tho bcaste
thro Oh the corno. did cut down al be-
fore ii. This tricke might be used il
lev IL and champion countrtys, blu. with
us It wolde make but i:l-favoreG
woorke
Gun. owder was known to the Romans
though they only used it for fireworks
and the secret of the terrible and
destructi. Greek fire has Teen lost
altogether.
Suspension bridges were known In
China for centuries, and the people
of the same country used coal gas
regularly or lighting purposes. long
before we did.